I Want My Music Television: 7/30/13

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Love Illumination – Franz Ferdinand


When I first saw the title of the new Love Illumination song, I thought it said “Love Illusion” and after watching the music video for the song, I may not have been the only one because there are some freaky illusions there, to the point it started to make my head hurt.


The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind) – Joss Stone


I did not think much of The Soul Sessions vol. 2 when it came out as it did not live up to the first installment (Joss Stone really should have brought back ?uestlove to produce it). After hearing this song, I may have to revisit because this is pretty good baby making music. Maybe Joss should just go ahead and make an entire album of baby making music. I fully endorse that idea.


Future Away (Romance Police) – Lissie


I am digging the new Lissie and and the video has a cool seventies vibe, but that muscle stirt she wears in a couple scenes is disturbingly distracting. She really should just have stuck with the Jane’s Addiction shirt the whole time.


The Rock – Deer Tick


As weird as the previously mentioned Franz Ferdinand video is, the new Deer Tick video may actually be creepier with its close up on the Ryan Gosling look-a-like.

I Want My Music Television - 9/17/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

I Will Wait – Mumford and Sons


One more week until the new Mumford and Sons album drops and after watching their live performance from Red Rocks I cannot wait, but alas I will wait (unless someone is nice enough to stream the album early). But after watching the video it is weird to think that who may very well be the biggest band in the country has foe a drummer, the lead singer’s right foot.


Live and Die - The Avett Brothers


Yep it is a good month for folk music between Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers who look to be having a lot of fun during their music video. It has to being a smile to your own face. And the American flag awning looks very cool.


Kill the DJ – Green Day


That is two music videos from Green Day from their new album that features a bunch of parting models. I know the album is a three part concept album about pre, post, and during a party, it is still a little weirde seeing the former punk band perform, non-ironically, in what looks to be a roller disco dance party, but without the skates.


The High Road - Joss Stone



Broken Bells went walking through a post-apocalyptic landscape for their video of this song, and Joss Stone went a complete three-sixty by strolling through a magical forest. Complete with an elephant.

Come On and Get the Minimum Before You Open up Your Eyes

I never understood why musicians do not add more cover songs to their albums. Instead they usually have a couple of good songs and the rest fillers. Back in the day you would see major acts fill out their album with songs made famous by other singers, some of which were great songwriters in their own right. You would think all these televised karaoke contestants would think, everybody knows me for singing other people songs, why not I add some to my first album, if not an entire album of covers. I am assuming the reason why this is rarely done anymore is why anyone does anything these days: money. It is probably cheaper to commission someone to write a new song than record an established hit. And of course if you write it yourself, you get to keep all the royalties.

Joss Stone actually bucked that trend on her debut album The Soul Sessions when the then teenager updated some soul songs (and one surprise track) from the sixties and seventies for a new millennium produced by soul legend Betty Wright to much effect. Coming just after the teen pop boom, Stone’s sultry throwback was a welcome change from the overproduced and over-autotunes tracks from her peers.

Four albums of new material would come next to mixed results as she tried to reboot her career a couple times (her third album was called Introducing Joss Stone while her fifth was called LP1). Almost a decade after her debut Joss Stone is releasing The Soul Sessions, Vol. 2 where she has dug through her crate of soul songs from the sixties and seventies (and one surprise track) bringing them into a new century. This time around Joss is tacking classics from Chi-Lites, Womack & Womack, Sylvia, The Dells, and The Casinos.

In the middle of all the old soul albums on her first album sat a smoothed out version of the garage rock of Fell in Love with a Girl by The White Stripes which Joss made it almost unrecognizable changing the genders and almost as good as the original. This time around she tried converting Broken Bells’s The High Road into a soul standard. Unfortunately this time it does not work as well, the original is already smoothed out and the weirdness of the task is what makes The Broken Bells version great, but Joss strips the song of any weirdness.

Really Volume 2 lacks the magic that the first one did with many of the songs drowned out by unnecessary organ. Joss’s version of Labi Siffre’s I Got The… is novel but only because it is interesting when the track transitions into the same funk line that Eminem sampled in My Name Is… Joss is at her best when she keeps it simplistic with love songs like The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind) and Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye.

Song to Download – Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye

The Soul Sessions, Volume 2 gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 8/22/11

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Otis - Jay-Z & Kanye West



When I hear Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Spike Jonzes together I except something legendary, but this may not even be a top ten video of the year let alone of all time. But I have been thinking lately where exactly does the Otis Redding sample ranking in the all time rap samples category. I may have to start doing some research, look for a list sometime in the next five years.


The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie – Red Hot Chili Peppers



Did someone not tell the Red Hot Chili Peppers that when you do a rooftop performance that it is supposed to end with the cops shutting you down? But that is a funky bassline from Flea but I cannot say the same for the new guitarist. Or Anthony Kiedis‘s mustache.


Miracle Worker - SuperHeavy



And the award for most random Supergroup award goes to SuperHeavy featuring Mick Jagger (in the pinkest suit that I do not think even Elton John could pull off), Dave Stewart, Damien Marley, Joss Stone, A.R. Rahman (you may know him better as the guy who did the Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack). It was if Mick put his iPod on shuffle and decided to ask the first four people that popped up to come into the studio with him. Hopefully Eric Clapton does the same because I would love to hear his collaboration with Mandy Moore, Babyface, Q-Tip, and Willie Nelson.


Day Dreams - Raphael Saadiq



Last week Cee-Lo had Urkel lip-syncing his words and this week Raphael Saadiq saw his Urkel and rasied him an Abed. Kimmy Gibler better get her agent on the phone.

She Hides in the Melody

What better way for a teenage girl to reintroduce herself than with a soliloquy from footballer Vinnie Jones. Um, yeah, okay. Of course we Americans would call him a soccer player best known for his hilarious turn in Eurotrip. Joss Sone named her latest album the Introducing of Joss Stone because as she says the album is the first that is “truly her,” granted I though she was saying pretty much the same thing about her last album after debuting with an album of cover songs. But anyways.

Even though the album is supposed to reintroduce us to Joss Stone, the album doesn’t sound that different from her past album with Joss goring through neo-soul and Motown era R&B tracks with Aretha Franklin type vocal gymnastics. The biggest changes happened behind the scene. First, unlike her last album that sported seven different producers, there are only two credited on the latest outing, Stone and Raphael Saadiq.

With Saadiq being a master of neo-soul (some credit him as starting the trend), the blame most likely fall on the shoulders of Stone herself as the songs tend too far into the hip-hop genre making the songs sound like all the other bland pop songs littering the radio these days. Maybe a little worse as some of the song fall flat in places. The hip-hop flavor is sometime saved by masters of the genre like Common on Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do Now and Lauryn Hill even comes out of hiding for Music, giving a much more inspired verse than the much ignored Fugees reunion song.

The other big change is that Joss took complete reigns of writing the songs, which in this case is not a good thing. Joss is an incredible singer but much like the karaokers on American Idol, her strength is not creating melodies on her own and does a much better job when she has a template to work off of. So much like post-Idol albums where the karaokers have to sing their own songs, Introducing Joss Stone fall flat, albeit Joss’s voice does save thing a little unlike the karaokers who are unable to get a record contract without appearing on a reality show. Maybe it time too think about hooking up with ?uestlove for a second Soul Session.

Song to Download - Arms of My Baby

Introducing Joss Stone gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Obligatory Super Bowl Review

Well that was boring. The commercials were sub-par, very few must see movie trailers, the half time show was sleep inducing and on top of it was a poorly played game. And if I were a Seahawks fan I would be extremely pissed because Seattle got jobbed. Four major game changing calls and all four went in the favor Pittsburg. I wonder if Joey Porter is going to thank the referees for throwing the game just like he ripped them for trying to give the game to the Colts a couple weeks ago. Even the main page of ESPN.com had a headline that said “Steeling the Show.” Here are the calls in question:

1. Bogus offensive interference in the end zone negating a Seahawks touchdown. Personally it looked more like a stiff arm than a push. If a player runs into someone else’s hand, it shouldn’t be a penalty. This led to field goal.

2. Big Ben on a third and twenty-eight dances on the line of scrimmage before completing a pass inside the five. This led to…

3. Big Ben dives into the end zone and the line judge tentatively calls it a touchdown basically hoping that the reply would get it right. But there wasn’t enough information for the officials to over tune it giving the Steelers their first score.

4. Phantom holding call that negated a pass to the one yard line. I’ll take John Madden’s word for it that wasn’t any holding on that play. This led to a Steelers interception which Pittsburg tuned into seven points.

It seems like every major sport events these days are marred by shady officiating that reeks of them throwing the game. Back when I was an official, whenever I made a questionable call, I’d always make sure that the next one would go the other way just to keep thing fair. But all of the major league officials always seem to favor one team. It’s almost as if Don King were involved. But anyways. Here are some of the thought I had during the big game yesterday:

- Why would they have Bill Belichicken in the pre-show? This is the most boring person ever. You might as well have brought in Steven Wright to do color commentary after that.

- Only thing lamer than The Rolling Stones performance at halftime was the Mick Jagger interview during the pre-show.

- On the other hand the pre-show concert was much better albeit they should have had fewer songs so they could spend more time singing the ones that would be left. And maybe during the Motown review, they should have had a couple more artists from Detroit.

- I wonder if Stevie Wonder knows if Joss Stone is a skinny white chick form England.

- The NFL really dropped the ball by ignoring those who didn’t show up for the MVP introduction. Yeah it’s shady for Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for passing due to money issues but should have at least named them all.

- Not a good sign for the Seahawks when they came out to the sounds of Bittersweet Symphony. Unless you are dedicating it to your opponent, not the best choice.

- What are with goofballs that shout during the moment of silence? These people should have been kick out of the game.

- That was a nice jazzy version of the Star Spangled Banner, but I could have done without Aaron Neville and Aretha Franklin trying to out-diva each other.

- I’m pretty sure Harrison Ford was stoned during the Oh, the Places You Go! segment. And had I been high, I may have enjoyed it.

- Didn’t the Rolling Stones do the exact same set during the kickoff show at the beginning of the season? It was nice that they played a new song though giving everyone a chance to go to the bathroom.

- I passed on the post show because there are very few things in my life I’d like to less than the Steelers celebrating a Super Bowl.


The commercials were overall lackluster. Out of five, I rated most of the ads a three or less. Plus I still don’t have a clue what Godaddy.com does and there was an ad with a bunch of people in HASMAT suits except I have absolutely no clue what it was advertising nor do I remember whose ad it was. Aside from V for Vendetta and the new Pirates of the Caribbean, none of the movies seemed that interesting. And wasn’t there a Poseidon Adventure remake that was a made for TV movie a couple weeks ago, why would I spend ten bucks to see another one? But anyways. In the end, it’s not a good sign when one of the best commercials is for a TV show, but here my list of the best of the best anyways:

1. Careerbuilder.com - I work with jackasses
2. MasterCard - MacGyver
3. Crime Deterrent Cell Phone
4. Lost - Addictive to Love
5. Bud Light - Scavenger hunt
6. I’m Going to Disney World
7. Ford Escape Hybrid - Kermit, It Ain’t Easy Being Green
8. Sharpie - Pirate autograph
9. Desperate Housewives - Which housewife are you?
10. Mobile ESPN
11. Degree - Stunt City
12. Budweiser - Lamb streaker
13. Aleve - Spock
14. Unknown - HASMAT
15. Budweiser - Stadium cards



The worst ad by far was Diet Pepsi's "Brown and Bubbly" ads. How could this make it to air. You got to think someone along the way would realize how this phrase could easily be compaired to things people do in the bathroom. This could go down as the worst marketing idea ever. In other new, I may gave some very cool news to announce in the near future, and I’m talk about the time I was on Letterman cool, so make sure you look out for that.

Your Fire Fills My Soul

Going with the “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it” is Santana who is back with his third installment of his duets series entitled All That I Am. Santana has always been the best idea for collaboration because unlike such efforts in the last decade from singers like Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, Santana is more of an instrumentalist who has always had a revolving door of singers, so why not just bring in high profile singers to accompany him.

For All That I Am, Santana brought back two artists who were responsible for his biggest hits off his last couple album. Michelle Branch once again gets the lead single honors with the upbeat I’m Feeling You that could be easily mistaken for her last collaboration with Santana, The Game of Love. Both songs were much more poppy than any of Santana’s older stuff or Branch’s music for that matter, but somehow overcome cheesy lyrics, this time replacing “A little bit of this and a little bit of that” with “I’m riding the highs and digging the lows,” and are able to make a extremely enjoyable song. The other returning face is Rob Thomas who wrote and sang the first song that made Santana relevant again, Smooth. This time around Thomas is relegated to just writing duties on the Mary J. Blige sung My Man. The song also features a very unnecessary rap from Big Boi of Outkast that takes away from the song.

Other guests include Steven Tyler of Aerosmith who is rescued from the rut his band has fallen recently with the onslaught of Diane Warren ballads and poorly veiled sophomoric lyrics. Just Feel Better is the best song Tyler has been apart of since the hey day of his band in the seventies. Los Lonely Boys make an argument against being one hit wonders with I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love which best reflects the Santana of old with its south of the border flavor and part of the lyrics sung in Spanish. Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas also show up in an almost salsa type song I Am Special which would be great at any party, but the song could get old quickly. Things slow down with the arrival of the smooth Anthony Hamilton on Twisted.

There are also some head scratching pairing on the album too, some with better results than other. First is the generational guitarist showcase with the old guard, Santana, trading licks with the heavy metal veteran, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, and the new kid on the block Robert Randolph. It's fun as a music fan to sit and try to pick out who is who on the appropriately titled Trinity. Then there is the reggae singer Sean Paul along side the soulful Joss Stone on Cry Baby Cry which combination actually sounds good. What doesn’t do as well is the inclusion of American Karaoke castoff Bo Bice on Brown Skin Girl who tries to channel the southern rock Gods of yesteryear, but comes off as exactly what he is, a pale karaoke imitation.

There are a few old Santana Mexican standards most notable Hermes that utilizes the organs, percussions, and horns just like every great Latin song. If would be hard for anyone not to dance when this comes on. In fact all of the songs without a name singer stands up to those that do on this album.

Song to Download – Just Feel Better

All That I Am gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Car Mix - June '05

Here is a list of the songs I'm listening to right now that fit on a single CD:

1. American Baby Intro – Dave Matthews Band
2. American Baby – Dave Matthews Band
3. Speed of Sound – Coldplay
4. Ashes – Embrace (Even though this is the best song from their album, you may want to check out the song Gravity which is free on iTunes this week.)
5. Since You Been Gone (Jason Nevins Remix) – Kelly Clarkson (I have already chronicled my love of this song a few times – I’m Soooooooooooooooooooo Moving On.)
6. Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) – Pet Shop Boys (The theme to my favorite new show of the summer, Beauty and the Geek. Stayed tune for a full review of the show coming soon.)
7. One Word – Kelly Osborne (I never though I’d like a song from her, but she did make a smart move going away from rock and into techno where it can hide poor singing ability. Ashlee Simpson, take note.)
8. Till I Get to You – Nikka Costa
9. 1 Thing (Remix) – Amerie & Jay-Z
10. Diamonds (From Sierra Leone) – Kanye West (A full review of this song and the accompanying video should be up in the next few days.)
11. Dreams – The Game (I don’t care too much for the Game, but the Kanye West production makes up for the lackluster rhyme skill.)
12. The Corner – Common, Kanye West, & Last Poets (The best rapper than no one listens to gets a little help from the best producer of the moment.)
13. You’re Gonna Luv Me – Da Backwudz (This song really sounds like it was produced by West with the sped up chorus.)
14. (Expletive deleted) Ain’t (expletive deleted) – Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg (My love of the Ben Fold version made me dust off my Dre album just to hear the original.)
15. (Expletive deleted) Ain’t (expletive deleted) – Ben Folds
16. The Right Time – Joss Stone (yes this is the one from the Gap commercial. Get it for yourself, it free from the gap link. Or if you like paying, click the other link.)
17. Chariot (Stripped) – Gavin DeGraw
18. Breathe (2 AM) (Live - Hotel Café) – Anne Nalick